So, this Half:Life-Alyx dialogue only exist in bits online, and I thought the conversation deserved a post in case anyone’s looking for it, because it took me a bit. I was finding it because of this article about grading reality on a curve, ie “An ode to low expectations”: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2021/03/an-ode-to-low-expectations/617801/
And I got excited about his comment near the end of the article, because it reminded me of the below conversation, and my perspective on reality that “low expectations are the key to happiness”. Honestly, I try to have “no expectations” vs low, but it’s the same premise. Some scientists even discovered it to be true! The secret to happiness and compassion:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/ambigamy/201408/the-secret-happiness-and-compassion-low-expectations
Alyx happens to be VR, but the series is in a post-takeover worst case scenario for humans, and the young hero-protagonist and her older “helper” are chatting about pre-and-post takeover earth that the former woman had never known.
———–
Alyx: Okay, so: Right now, what it’s like to live on Earth, on a scale of one to ten — I’d say we’re at a two.
Russell: Yep, could always get worse.
Alyx: What would you rate it BEFORE the Combine showed up?
Russell: Ooh, that’s a toughie. I don’t know, uh, good day? I’d say six. Yeah, strong six.
Alyx: Six? That’s not great.Russell: Well, that’s life, Alyx. You know, it’s not always great.
Alyx: Well, maybe we get the Combine off Earth and we could shoot for like an eight, you know?
Russell: Ooh, an eight. Yeah, that’d really would be nice. Really nice.
But, so we’re not all doom and gloom here, I’ll throw in Russell’s Club sandwich monologue:
Russell: Ah! Excellent. Alyx, have you ever heard of a club sandwich? Right. To make a club sandwich, you need to start with bread. Not from a bread line. From a bakery across the street, baked that day, okay? You add tomatoes, lettuce — not vegetable paste — fresh. Then you add bacon — that’s from an animal we used to call the “pig.” You toast the bread, and you put all that inside it.
Alyx: I don’t know what any of that meant, but it sounds good, partner.
Russell: It is! And I’m not done. Then you add a second sandwich on top of the first one. You put ham in it — also from a pig — and turkey, from an animal we used to call the “turkey,” and more tomato, more lettuce, and a bunch of other things I’m forgetting. It was six inches tall and weighed a pound and had a dozen ingredients from five different continents. It was the most impossible food item you could imagine in any age before ours.
Here’s the recipe:
https://www.naguide.com/half-life-alyx-club-sandwich/
FOR FUN… Mitch Hedberg:
